Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The trouble with tribbles and college students.

Last night I discovered that of the 25 freshman college students in my Comp II class, not a single one was familiar with "The Trouble with Tribbles." As for the circumstances that led to my discovering this shortcoming on their part--let's just say that it was pertinent to the English-y conversation at hand and leave it at that.

There's a row of blue bristles on my toothbrush to let me know when to buy another one, and the moisturizing strip on my fancy-smancy razor changes color when it's time to cash in some bonds and buy replacement blades. Everybody already knows that I sometimes have problems remembering where I live and how to get there. My purse is littered with cryptic notes that I can no longer remember enough about to decipher what it is, exactly, they were supposed to remind me to do.

So how on earth can I be expected to know when one of my cultural references expires?